Album Trade Week 9: @TreeofAllTime

Some really smooth and jazzy art pop. This just sounds really nice, it’s very easy listening to me I could put this on and work on something else in the background and it would work perfectly but I can also sit here and really appreciate the intricacies of every song as well. Instrumentally this is stellar, I loved the guitars on here and the jazzy use of horns was really nice, the synths were solid as well, everything just sounds really smooth and just ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #1- “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm”

A Tribe Called Quest is often regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time but i’ve never really heard much of their music, so it’s time to change that. Their debut album is solid, it definitely shows promise but rarely do they quite reach the heights that I think that they can. The 4 members of A Tribe Called Quest all work really well together, Q-Tip is ... read more

Album Trade Week 9: @Stupidstorm

This is some really dark and cold synthpop. The production on here is stellar, it has this very dark almost gothic tone to it, the synths are fantastic, the drums sound really good, and the use of guitar while rarer is amazing especially on “Personal Jesus”. The production is the main part of this album, it’s generally the focus and I think it’s the strongest element of the entire album, every song pops in their own way and all of them ... read more

After 13 years legendary electronic duo Boards of Canada have returned and they didn’t disappoint. I don’t even know where to begin with this album, it’s truly an otherworldly experience, it takes elements from each of the duo’s previous albums and meshes them together into this dark and ominous masterpiece. This feels closest to “Geogaddi”, the dark atmosphere, the strange and distorted vocal samples exemplify that, but there’s also a heavier use of ... read more

QUAD DID YET AGAIN! With the new single from Quadeca ushering in the next era of his career (i’ll do a brief mini-review of the single at the end of this review), I thought it appropriate to finally go back and listen to his critically acclaimed mixtape “SCRAPYARD”. This is a project made up of songs that didn’t make the cut for “I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You” and you can definitely tell, these songs sound like that album but they also have their own ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #8- “The Scholars”

This feels less like a Car Seat Headrest album and more like an album from a band that Will Toledo just happens to be in. This is the first album from Car Seat Headrest, besides their previous album which I found to be very mediocre, that I felt absolutely nothing about when it was over, every other album from this band had me feeling something when it was over, they’re emotional and powerful albums but this one left me with ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #7- “Making a Door Less Open”

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED??? Car Seat Headrest after years of being a solo act from Will Toledo gets signed and becomes a band in 2015, the first thing they do is go back and remake a couple cult classics from the solo era, then they put out their first album as a full band, then they go back and remake their cult classic and fan favorite album making it even better, that remake would go on to become their most critically ... read more

Album Trade Week 8: @Stupidstorm

Some of the best hip-hop had to offer in the 2000s. Lupe Fiasco is a name i’m only decently familiar with, I know his name and his reputation as being incredible but I had only heard his most recent album “Samurai” before this, and I thought that was a great album but this is certainly better. Lupe is a phenomenal rapper on here, he’s lyrically brilliant across the entire album, and he’s got great flows to support that excellent ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #6- “Teens of Denial”

The first real album with Car Seat Headrest as a full band makes full use of its expanded roster to create one of their best albums yet. Following “Teens of Style” which is more of a compilation of remakes rather than a full on album, Car Seat Headrest would release their first true original album as a full band, and you can really tell. Everything just sounds better here, especially the drums, Andrew Katz is an ... read more

Album Trade Week 8: @TreeofAllTime

This is some solid 60s folk pop. Simon & Garfunkel are some of the biggest names of the folk pop genre and it’s easy to see why, this is some really relaxed but great music. The guitars are really pretty but they can go a little harder on the more rock-like songs, and the rest of the instrumentation really takes a backseat to the guitars for the whole album but the drums and percussion and the sort are still solid enough. The vocals from both Paul ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #5- “Teens of Style”

A necessary look back even if it is a bit of a stylistic regression. This was the first Car Seat Headrest project to be released following two very important events, firstly Car Seat Headrest was signed to Matador Records and secondly it was expanded from being just Will Toledo to being a full band. So this first project had a lot to prove, and instead of doing a bombastic and massive step forward with their next mainline album, ... read more

Album Trade Week 8: @Rolymongone

This is some really solid hip-hop. The production here is really great, it’s got this chipmunk soul style and every beat sounds super good, the sampling is great. My favorite song production wise was probably “In Case It Doesn’t Work Out”, I love the super hard hitting beat in the first half which has some really great sampling, and then the second half is this really pretty live piano and while I do kind of wish this was its own song ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #4- “How To Leave Town”

Car Seat Headrest delivers one of their best and more climactic albums yet. This was the last project released before Will Toledo would expand Car Seat Headrest from a solo project to a full on band after getting signed to Matador Records, so this album, technically an EP, acts as the last message from this first era of Car Seat Headrest and its a phenomenal message. This is his early sound perfected in a lot of ways, ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #3- “Nervous Young Man”

A double album worthy of its length as Toledo perfects the sound of his early work. Running at an impressive 2 hours and 8 minutes this is the longest album in Car Seat Headrest’s entire discography, it continues to explore the same general themes as his last few albums, love and heartbreak being the two most central, on each album he’s discussed these two ideas in slightly different ways, “Twin Fantasy” ... read more

Album Trade Week 7: @Stupidstorm

This is some solid synthpop with some definite highlights but it’s also not necessarily my thing all the time. The production here is really solid, it’s bouncy and it’s fun, there weren’t any songs where I hated the production; I really like the use of guitar on some of the songs, I think it added an extra layer that some of these songs needed. The most striking thing about the album to me though are the vocals, I kind of like them, ... read more

On the State of JPEGMAFIA and His Music

JPEGMAFIA has been one of the most interesting artists of the last 10 years, with every album he explored a new sound but all still felt wholly JPEGMAFIA, he has been one of the best producers of the last 10 years as well, in my opinion he’s one of the best of all time but the conversation needs to be had on whether or not he’s still living up those expectations that he’s set for himself. There are two main things that I want to talk ... read more

A perfect soul album. Isaac Hayes’ 1969 classic album “Hot Buttered Soul” lives up to its name and even more to it’s reputation, this is soul unleashed, most of the songs here take the standard conventions on the genre and push them to their limits, almost similarly to what was happening to rock at the same time with albums like King Crimson’s 1969 classic “In The Court of the Crimson King”; i’m going to go track by track for this review ... read more

JPEGMAFIA’s newest album is less of a complete new step for him and more of a half step between albums. I love his last album “I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU”, the mix of metal and his typical experimental hip hop works really well for me, and that album has continued to grow on me every since I first heard it when it dropped, so I naturally loved the deluxe version of it as well, it was more of that genre blend that I loved. But then we arrive here, JPEGMAFIA has always been one ... read more

Casual Review:

This is just 5 more great songs from this era of Car Seat Headrest. This EP released less than 4 months after his previous album, “Monomania”, and it continues to expand on the sound that that album has, it also continues to make the lower recording quality sound better, the quality has gone up since his earlier albums but also Toledo has found a unique sound within that level of quality that is started to become really great. This is a really concise project, only 5 ... read more

Car Seat Headrest Shallow Dive #2- “Monomania”

This is a significant upgrade from his last two albums. This is a sister album to “Twin Fantasy” which had released the previous year, where that album describes this fantasy of Will Toledo and his partner being happy in their relationship this album describes the reality, instead of a twin there’s just him now, the title even reflects this with twin being two and “Monomania” being defined as an obsession ... read more